In the second half, Momochi played extremely defensive, so Sako went in and got countered.

He says he completely lost confidence when Healing didn't help (gain life lead). He was too afraid of getting countered so he wasn't sure what to do, being aggressive or defensive.

(His wife asks "Do you think you're mentally strong or weak?") Sako thinks he's mentally weak as seen in Momochi match. He thinks he should give himself more time between a match instead of eagerly continue which is a bad habit.

vs. Daigo Umehara

"[Umehara] was too strong [to the point that] I laughed during the match." (laugh)

"[Umehara's] fending and the way he uses hop kick and crMK>Hadoken were amazing."

"All I can say is he was great! I completely lost!" (laugh)

(When pointed out that Sako used to use Evil Ryu) "I think there's no better Evil Ryu than [Umehara's]"

"Umehara's Evil Ryu should be illegal." (laugh)

(His wife asks "What if you use Evil Ryu, too?") Sako thinks if he uses Evil Ryu the score may change, but outcome will be the same. "Sadly, I don't feel like winning (Umehara)."

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Karipaku, the female Cody player, will be releasing an adult manga based on Love Live! on December 30 in this Winter Comic Market event. The self-published manga, named "Luminous," will focus on relationship between Eli and Nozomi. Age verification (18 years old or above) is required to buy this.

Friday, December 26, 2014

The 12th episode of anime Inou Battle wa Nichijou-kei no Naka de (When Supernatural Battles Became Commonplace) that was aired this week features an image of a character wearing Mad Catz T-shirt during the end credit.

There's no story behind this image except that they're all members of the evil organization.

Inou Battle is a romantic comedy anime about a group of high school students who possess superpowers such as time or elements manipulation. The anime became a talk of the town when "Hatoko's Meltdown" scene (in episode 7) was aired in Japan.

Daigo Umehara appeared as special guest on TOPANGA TV tonight. There was no main topic so they talked about everything including TOPANGA League, Capcom Cup, Umehara's manga (that will be released on Friday), training, and Canada Cup's Master Series.

A new fighting game called Nitro+ Blasterz: Heroines Infinite Duel was announced this week. This game is a collaboration between Nitro+ and Examu–the maker of Arcana Heart. The project itself, however, was announced in 2008 to celebrate Nitro+'s 10th anniversary. It is a rework, and Examu is now in charge of the development instead of MileStone.

Nitro+ (Nitroplus) holds some IPs that were made into anime such as Phantom, Demonbane, Guilty Crown, Sonico. They are a video game maker and also work as a creative company in anime production.

The video (41 minutes) in the link below is the exclusive first look of the game in video form including live gameplay from Famitsu.

A photobook of figures from Shining series based on the designs of Tony is released today.

Under the name "Tony's Horoine Works 'Shining' series chapter," the book (113 pages, A4) features photographs of 104 figures with base illustrations from Tony–one of the most famous illustrators in Japan. It was also said to feature the first look of the unannounced Excela figure.

Daigo Umehara revealed this evening on Capcom TV show that he didn't really expect to play Dhalsim, and he didn't practice the matchup for Capcom Cup 2014.

Umehara and Mago appeared on the Internet show with Capcom's Sugiyama and Ayano to promote USF4's Omega Mode. When asked about the match, although Umehara appeared to know that Xian used to play Dhalsim, he wasn't convinced that he had to play against Dhalsim.

Note that just before the Capcom Cup 2014, Mago reported that Umehara was recruiting Decapre, Zangief, and Poison via online lobby. Itabashi Zangief also revealed that he trained with Umehara before the tournament.

Daigo Umehara's Road to Capcom Cup 2014
Umehara had the most difficult route for a spot in this final day. He had to win Capcom Pro Tour Taiwan, then had to win a round-robin featuring two Evo champs plus three Evo top 8 (even played GamerBee twice) in Capcom Pro Tour Asia Finals.

Updates
- In front of venue
- Umehara and the gang outside the venue
- Beautiful shot of Umehara, Bon-chan, Fuudo
- Umehara and the gang going Fisherman's Wharf
- Umehara eating with Nishikin on his side
- Umehara literally blocking Fuudo's sauce
- Umehara and Alcatraz Island
- Umehara and the gang walking and laughing
- Ono and line in front of venue
10:32 - Ono in front of stage
11:10 - Japanese stream said PR Balrog mains Claw. (this's why we use Claw/Boxer/Dictator)
11:26 - Ono at back stage
11:30 - 15507 viewers
11:32 - Stream actually starts
11:33 - The Megas & A_Rival perform opening music. Nothing wrong with the music, but we rather spend time for FT3 than FT2.
11:36 - Mike Ross appears as host, in car repairing suit. Hope he uses script.
11:37 - Matt Dahlgren appears, thanking the Illuminati.
11:40 - Alex Valle appears to play OSF4, with a Dhalsim player who should be banned from the FGC long time ago for collusion and behaviors. (But hey, half of VIPs will be gone if we actually have regulations) Combofiend and Michael Evans to commentate. We must remind you that Combofiend can't commentate.
11:54 - Random players appear to continue OSF4.
11:56 - Nishikin just said he wants to play ASAP.
12:03 - Dahlgren appears, OSF4 coming Dec15. *25186 viewers
12:04 - MH4 Ultimate 3DS trailer. 30 minutes wasted.
12:09 - Mad Catz CM feat. Daigo Umehara followed by Mark Wahlberg movie trailer The Gambler.
12:27 - Event resumes after break. About to waste 1 hour already. Mike Ross on stage introducing players.
12:31 - 34030v
12:35 - Momochi appears with Juri theme, his chance of winning this tournament just dropped to 0%.
12:37 - James Chen and Ultra David appear.
12:46 - Tournament actually starts!
13:38 - By the way, Chun(-Li) is pronounced Choon, not Chan.
14:51 - 7410v on JP stream
15:03 - This band put lyric in Megaman song. Time to watch something else. (JP chat said is this high school cultural festival?)
15:06 - 42622v (almost 18000 viewers gone in this break
15:14 - Yesterday, a Japanese game event had underground idols sing and dance as a filler. We thought it was bad as they could barely sing or dance. This's worse. Some of the girls at least looked good.
15:21 - The band stopped. Then they said they'll be back. OMG.
16:45 - Tournament is over. Time to sleep.

Friday, December 12, 2014

"Related videos - 100 million views"
"Pocketbook - Amazon's best selling e-book of 2013"
"Japan's first pro fighting gamer"
"God of Fighting Game World - Daigo Umehara"
"Fighting game legend turn into comic"
"Takes place in 1990s - Tokyo's game centers"
"At that time, Umehara was definitely the one I didn't want to lose." (Nuki)
"Thanks to that era, I'm now a pro gamer." (Umehara)

Since the manga is published by Kadokawa, one of the largest publishers in Japan, the video was uploaded to Kadokawa Anime channel. It will appear along side with other well-known works, this is an accomplishment itself.

Volume 4: Daily Conversation
The group discovers that Kirika hates carrots so much she uses her magic to secretly transfer the carrots in her stew to Yuma's. She tries to blame the chef for the portions, but makes Agnum, who happens to be the chef, angry. After the conversation, Agnum learns new personality "Fire Chef" and Kirika learns "Hate Carrot."

Alphamax announced today that it will release Won Pairon in June 2015. First revealed in July, the 25.5cm tall 1/7 scale figure is priced at 11,800 yen (tax excluded). The preorder starts today, the deadline is January 30.

Pairon is an original character created exclusively for Beast Note's best fighting game of generation Blade Arcus.

Wednesday, December 3, 2014

Sega announced today that it will hold location test of Blade Arcus Ver.1.01 in three game centers in Tokyo starting tomorrow (December 4). The test will end in around one week. The main subject of this patch is the countermeasure against fuzzy guard.

The changes

Countermeasure against cross-up fuzzy guard

Countermeasure against standing/crouching fuzzy guard

First Attack and First Combo will now give bonus to both players in trade